


A Kindness

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-29 20:54:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20088622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Jack is injured and unconscious, for a short time he lingers near death: during this time he gets to see the afterlife, and as it happens, his family meets up with him and are very happy and surprised to see him.HOWEVER: This takes place BEFORE he gets his memories, so he doesn’t know who they are at all."I stayed with the prompt for this one. Jack has this experience during the fight with Pitch where Sandy was killed, so when he wakes up, he unfortunately doesn’t have a lot of time to process it or even guess at what happened.





	A Kindness

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 8/21/2016.

“Jack! Jack!” A woman in clothes that remind Jack of the night he broke out of the ice and was given his name runs toward him and embraces him. “It’s been so long! You look just the same! So young! How did this happen? Why weren’t you here? It felt like a long time, so you must have been on Earth, but—” She moves back to look at him, still holding his shoulders. “Usually that doesn’t happen.”  
  
It’s so good to be recognized, to be waited for, to be embraced, but Jack knows he can’t stay quiet, now. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I—I don’t recognize you. I don’t remember anything that could help me make sense of what you’re telling me.”  
  
“Mama,” another voice says, now, and Jack turns to see another woman approaching him. Strangely, though she calls the other woman ‘mama,’ they both look as if they’re close to the same age. As soon as Jack thinks that, though, he finds he can’t determine their ages at all. All he can say for sure is that they seem to be in the prime of their lives.  
  
The new woman smiles thoughtfully at Jack, then touches the shoulder of the first woman. “I don’t think we should try to explain, Mama. You know we only have a little time with him, don’t you? If you let yourself feel it, I know you’ll be able to tell.”  
  
The first woman sighs, but doesn’t look away from Jack. “Is this meant to be a kindness, then?” she asks quietly.  
  
“It can’t be anything else,” the new woman says. She reaches out and takes Jack’s hand. “His fate is different from ours, and it’s better to see him when we can.” She turns directly to Jack. “I don’t know why you can’t remember Mama, but I know why you wouldn’t be able to recognize me. But I want to ask—is it all right if we let that pass by for now? May we hold you? May we hug you? For the little time you’ll be here?”  
  
Jack nods, a lump forming in his throat. It’s true he doesn’t recognize the two women, but there’s something in him that wishes he did, that knows he should. Something that knows that it’s right to be embraced by them, something that has been wanting that for a long, long time.   
  
“I don’t know where we are or how I got here,” Jack admits, as he soaks in their comforting warmth. “But I can’t—I don’t think anyone has ever been able to hold me like this, and it almost feels like—as if you’re my fa—  
  
—mily.”  
  
“Oh, thank goodness! The nightmaresand didn’t get him, too!” Jack blinks in confusion at the person—woman—bird—no, Tooth, he knows this!—at Tooth, looking down at him. There’s a hard surface under his back, and from the way it moves he guesses it’s probably the seat of the sleigh.   
  
“What happened?” he asks, and tries to sit up, but Tooth urges him back down.  
  
“You were—” Her face falls, and he sees her struggle to compose herself enough to keep speaking. “You were trying to help Sandy, but Pitch had another attack ready for you. We thought you might have—might have died.”  
  
“I—” Jack can’t figure out what he was going to say. His thoughts whirl, caught up in trying to process all his recent memories and what he’s just been told. What is for later, what is for now? “Sandy! Sandy, what happened, where is he?”  
  
“North!” Bunny calls from somewhere behind him on the sleigh. “Let’s get back to the pole right now, all right? The battle’s over.”  
  
“Right,” North says. He sounds much less energetic than usual, even Jack can hear that, though he can’t stop himself from asking more and more questions. _What happened to Sandy, what happened to everyone, what happened, what happened, what happened?_  
  
When he does get an explanation, it drives all thoughts of those strange moments with the two women from his mind. Until he sees them both again in the contents of his tooth box, one much younger than he had last seen her, one just a little older. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> sylphidine said: “May we hold you? May we hug you? For the little time you’ll be here?” JEHOSAPHAT, WOMAN, YOU’RE RIPPING MY HEART OUT WITH SO FEW WORDS.


End file.
